Before The Beatles published
their first single, a band
called Quarrymen played music
in the pubs and night clubs of
Liverpool in 1960.

The Beatles were the best-selling popular
musical act of the
20th century.

This commercial success
was repeated in many other
countries: EMI estimated that
by 1985, the band had sold over
one billion discs. The RIAA
has certified The Beatles as
the top selling artist of all
time based on U.S. sales.

Their early material fused
elements of American
rock'n'roll and R&B

into a new and
influential
strain of popular
rock'n'roll.

With Lennon and McCartney
penning most of the band's
songs, they established a

prototype for the
"self-contained" rock group,
which departed from
the long-established practice
of producers, composers
and arrangers wiriting the
songs for popular music acts.

The Fab four inspiring
what the media was to term "Beatlemania".
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